The Long Road Towards Independence, Justice and Peace for the Basque Country

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Doctor Supports Otamendi's Claims

Somehow Aznar is going to get away with murder (and torture in this case) despite the mounting evidence that his government (like all the previous governments since 1936) has practiced torture regularly as a method to punish the Basques.

The doctor who saw the “Egunkaria” Chief Editor during the time he was being held incommunicado in the hands of the Spanish Civil Guard has testified as a witness before the judge and has confirmed that he received complaints of tortures

Imanol Murua Uria – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The report of the court-appointed doctor who saw Martxelo Otamendi, the Chief Editor of Egunkaria, every day during the time he was being held incommunicado at the Spanish Civil Guard Headquarters in Madrid coincides with the declarations Otamendi made regarding the bad treatment he had endured; the declarations were made shortly after the incommunicado period was over before Juan Del Olmo, the Spanish National Criminal Court judge. Juan Monge, the court-appointed doctor, testified as a witness the day before yesterday before the Provincial Court of Madrid in the Otamendi torture complaints case and confirmed what had been stated in his reports.

According to the National Criminal Court doctor’s reports of February 21 and 22 on his visits to him on very premises of the Civil Guard, Otamendi told him that the Civil Guards had made him do squats and press-ups, had stripped him and had not allowed him sleep, among other things. In the report dated February 23, in contrast, the Court Doctor Monge records that Otamendi had told him that he was “fine” and that he had seemed to be “unforthcoming”. According to the minutes of the declarations that Otamendi made before Judge Juan Del Olmo on the morning of February 25, the civil guards had dragged him out of his cell and threatened to shoot him right there, if he complained to the court-appointed doctor again. This took place after he had told the doctor on February 22 about the bad treatment. Otamendi explained to Del Olmo that this was why he had said “fine” to the doctor the following day, even though the previous day they had subjected him to the same bad treatment including the bag.